Conventionally, an optical processing device has been used which includes a dispersion element (for example, a grating) to disperse an optical beam and an actuatable optical element allowing each wavelength in each of the dispersed beams to be incident on any of a plurality of output paths.
One example of such an actuatable optical element is a DMD (Digital Micromirror Device), which includes an array of micromirror elements, each of which is individually actuatable. The DMD may selectively switch an optical path of reflected wavelength components to any one of multiple output paths by adjusting the position of the mirror elements to control the direction in which the wavelength components are reflected. Such optical processing devices can be used to process the wavelengths in an optical beam in a variety of different ways for a variety of different purposes, including switching, wavelength attenuation and wavelength blocking